Monday, March 22, 2010

Do you really remember your own dream?

Dream interpretation has been a common tool for psychotherapist to assign meaning to their patients dreams. This type of therapy may develop beliefs that never occurred because of suggestibility. We as people may develop thoughts that we believe occurred, but actually did not. It is said that when you dream you have a direct connection to your unconsciousness, and this reveals hidden meanings. If dreams are interpreted properly, they can provide insights to a person's unconscious, traumatic experiences and secret desires. In class, Dr. Berg explained that flying in your dream with emase and enjoyment meant that you were on top of a situation, and if you were having difficulty it meant you were unstable in life. It was also discussed that Mazzoni stated problems with dream interpretation because people's beliefs could be changed by a therapist's inaccurate interpretation of their dream. Today, most scientist see dream interpretation as a pseudoscience.

The Florence false interpretation study was to explore whether certain activities could lead people to develop false beliefs about the past. Undergraduate students were given a Life Events Inventory that questioned their critical experiences which included "being lost in a public place"," abandoned by parents", and "getting lost in a public space."Half of the participants recieved suggestive information about their dream. Getting to the point, the students who received suggestive information had recreated, or added to their past. The interpretation dreams could have harmful effects depending on the therapist. Therapists have the power to change patients for the better if they are thinking about the good and vice versa. Most of the time the changes happen when hypothesis are pressed on the patients too early.

To all of you who thought about getting your dreams interpreted, I caution you. I think dreams can be interpreted for mutual benefit, but not for solving problems you have in life. I believe there are a lot of things that can go wrong when you have your dreams interpreted professionally. I personally recorded my dreams in a dream log for a psychology class, and interpreted them myself without any influence. I would recommend this method if you are interested about learning more about your dreams.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

The popular media and self-help industry is rife with extraordinary claims. Alien experimentation, psychic detectives, mediums, ESP, extreme therapies and miracle products are all examples of how pseudoscience and the paranormal have become prevalent, popular and even an extremely lucrative enterprise. The majority of these examples defy the basic laws of science, logic and common sense yet they appeal to a large number of people. Here we will use science, specifically a psychological perspective to explore these popular theories and claims, and learn to think critically in order to be able to constructively evaluate them.